Category: Reviews

If you are a casual gamer and looking for an affordable option to get your gaming to the next level, Acer has designed something powerful, robust and comes in hand at an affordable price range. An ideal gaming option for casual gamers who wants to play battle royal shooter and other demanding titles.

This system is an affordable option if you are switching desktop PC gaming to laptop gaming, as it comes in arrays of hardware options.  You can choose this option as per your pocket size as it comes in two screen options; 15.6 inches and 17.3 inches.

In this review of Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop, we focus on 15.6 inches model, as the time of writing this review, the gaming laptop costs under $500. So, it would not break your bank with its price a hands-down option, no doubt.

Acer refreshed it’s Nitro 5 model and the latest specs are way better than the previous model. I must say, Acer Nitro 5 features relatively modest gaming specs, but that does not mean it lacks in gaming or freeze. As long as casual gaming is concerned, it stands heads and shoulders above.

Design

The Acer Nitro 5 does not make a statement as long as design and looks are concerned. The weight falls around 5.5 pounds with more than one-inch thickness. On the back, there is a strip, and a cooling grille, half of it is a function, fan exhaust outlet.

The weight is because of its 15.6 inches screen and budget-friendly graphics card and other demanding cooling and power requirements. Acer Nitro 5 weight is a glaring downside, other laptops at the same price and features onboard weigh just over 4.8 pounds.

The entire chassis is made of sturdy plastic, the design is not as charming as most of your gamers sought-after. It is a little bulky; with lid has a brushed metal look that makes it different than regular business laptops.

If you love a clean-looking laptop, a word of warning for you, the laptop constantly picks fingerprints and smudges. Do not mistake it with a business laptop, nor does it look too gorgeous.

Display and Keyboard

The Acer Nitro 5 is powered with 15.6 inches HD display and in-display uses in-plane-switching aka IPS panels to deliver the highest wide viewing angle. The type of display is considered expensive among the three. The IPS panels integrating display offers better image visualization and enhance displaying experience.

The display also integrates a matte finish that reduces screen glare. The technology protects your eyes and reduces blue light emission from the screen. Though the display does not come with a 4k resolution, the budget constraints did not let the brand come up with the size of resolution.

The frame rates are relatively lower than gamers sought-after, this is because of the IPS panels onboard. For gaming machines, people often opt-with TN panels, because of their blazing frame rates. But, the overall performance of IPS panels lags other behind and stands out in the crowd.

The budget gaming laptop comes with a backlit enabled keyboard. The keyboard is comfortable, but it lacks the customizable lights or keys gamers love to grab. No fancy backlit here, you can either turn on red backlit or just turn it off. The keyboard backlighting lacks the brightness adjustment. When you turn them off, it becomes hard to spot the pad and keys.

The only positive side of the keyboard, other than having backlit onboard, is WASD keys. The keys have thicker fonts and come surrounded with a red border, so during intensive gaming sessions, it would be easier to spot and maneuver them.

Acer also comes with a separate Numpad and full-sized directional arrows. The touchpad does not come with the right and left button, not a big downside. Many of the gamers tether gaming mouse during play, the use of touchpad narrows.

Graphics Card

The budget gaming laptop under $500 comes powered with AMD Radeon RX 560X graphics card with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM memory. The graphics card is powerful enough to handle latest title games and would not freeze when you play Fortnite, Apex, and PUBG.

It does provide 4 k resolutions, but the display and graphics card combo should hold the size of resolution. If you need to play games at 4k resolutions with a GPU that is VR ready, you will have to spend some more money.

Processor and RAM

The Acer’s refresh Nitro 5 comes powered with AMD Ryzen 5 2500U Quad-Core Processor up to 3.6 GHz clock speed. The whole package of this laptop makes it an ideal grab for a casual gamer.

It is not just the processor or graphics card, the laptop delivers a high level of gaming performance to lead to you to victory time and time again just because of its all-star cast of supporting features. The processor aids in gaming performance and helps you to maintain seamless, smooth and error-free gaming.

As long as the memory section is concerned, you got enough memory to have error-free gaming experience. The Acer gaming laptop comes integrated with an 8GB DDR4 memory to assist you in gaming. The size of memory is more than enough for ac casual gamer and gets indulged in casual gaming such as PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex.

Connectivity and Storage

The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop comes with enough input and output port what a casual gamer or casual computing would require. The port-selection is adequate; it comes with two-USB 2.0, one USB 3.0, one HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and a new USB 3.1 Type-c PORT.

The other connectivity includes a Kensington lock slot, headphone jack and for Fast WI-FI connection, Acer provides the latest 802.11 cc WI-FI and Bluetooth 4.0. You may say the connectivity options are not that good compared to the rival gaming laptops; still, they are enough to offer smooth input and output connectivity.

The storage department is taken care of with an abundant 1TB HDD drive. The traditional storage type could be jibe for gamers, as the type has gone obsolete as long as gamers are concerned. The price tag does not let the brand come up with an SSD option. Yes, the integration of a 128GB with a 500GB HDD could have made the better option than this.

Battery Life

There are some downsides the gaming laptop integrates but not the battery section. Luckily, that’s the area where this system excels and the battery runt time is around 8 hours, which is almost double the other rivals with the same specs and price.

We also checked the battery life of other laptops around the same price tag, they were as low as half to the Acer Nitro 5. So, now with the laptop onboard, you do not have to compromise on battery and enjoy your gaming experience at the full throttle.

Performance

Acer Nitro 5 is a pure-gaming machine that satisfy your everyday gaming needs. Unfortunately, the laptop easily passes to offer a smoother gaming performance for latest to medium games at medium or high settings.

For Pro gamers, there should be a high sized graphics card and this model with these specs cannot give a smash as we initially warned the pro gamers.  As long as basic computing or other tasks are related, the laptop stands out. You can have it for running heavy CAD application, browsing, basic engineering work and college assignment and much more in the row.

Guru’s Verdict

In a nutshell, the gaming laptop is a downright steal at the price under 500 dollars. I do not think, any other brand or product could offer you this range of specs and performance what Nitro 5 promises to deliver.

You can upgrade the RAM and storage section whenever you want, it comes with extra lots. You can easily remove the back cover to upgrade the hardware without any hiccup. Battery life is one of the positive sides of the gaming laptop; no other competitors could stand before it.

The high-ended gaming simply cannot be carried out using it- yet casual gamers can go seamlessly. The Keyboard is impressive, the placement of a touchpad is another gripes, still a great budget gaming laptop to go with.

Are you after a laptop that is powerful and can cope with the entry-level of gaming too? Lenovo has recently introduced the Lenovo Ideapad L340 laptop that is taking the gaming laptop world by storm.

The laptop helps the casual users to roll hands-on entry-level gaming as well as making light work of every from content writing to photo editing. A laptop is a hands-down option for budget users, who cannot spend two grand, still want to engage in gaming.

This laptop is a clear option for gaming and work, it is sort of blend of the two. The laptop shares a sleek stylish design and comes with black chassis with a blue accent. The blue backlighting, impressive display, and well-packed keyboard make it a supreme option.

The laptop might not be able to blow you away with the battery life and gaming performance, it maintains 3 hours and 30-minutes, but after reviewing many gaming laptops under $700, we think it is a great bang on your buck.

Let’s have a detailed insight into the Lenovo new entry and learn what new features the laptop is come powered with.

Design & Construction

The Lenovo designed entry-level gaming laptop bolsters a different irregular design construction. Rather than having an aggressive angular design, it showcases round edges brushed aluminum look that resembles a premium range gaming laptop.

Yes, from the looks, laptop reminiscent professional notebooks, you can have it around for professional office work, in meetings, colleges and your engineering work even. The gaming laptop from the style does not make a fancy or stylish statement, simple sleek looks it shares.

The brushed aluminum encompasses the whole chassis of the gaming beast; the black neat entire shape is broken by just a Lenovo Blue background logo.

From the close it looks like a solid slate of aluminum, you would not behold a better minimalist design than this around.

The laptop shares fewer bezels from the sides and more bezels on the up and down, weight at 2.2 Kg it is one of the lighter notebook available on the market right now.

Display

The Lenovo Ideapad gaming laptop comes with a 15.6 inches IPS panels integrating the Anti-glare coating display. The IPS panels obviously are going to give a seamless video and image watching experience.

The anti-glare coating helps the users to have supreme experience in luminance. The gaming laptop display produces 250 nits of brightness and around 45 percent color gamut.

The gaming machine offers refresh rates at 60Hz which is way lesser than recommended rates for high-ended AAA title games running. Still, the display is way better than others and makes you watch videos at high-definition and play games at good settings.

It seems the brand trade-off the refresh rates with better color production and viewing angles. The wide viewing angles are great, from any angle of the screen; you behold the same level of the display without breaking, washing out display.

The anti-glare coating, 250 nits brightness helps you behold seamless display outdoor, it helps when you go out under sunlight to continue your regular computing work, coding, and playing games. The coating retains the screen quality and protects your eyes from extra illuminance or fading out display.

Keyboard & Touchpad

The keyboard of the IdeaPad L340 shows a super gaming ambiance. The gaming laptop comes with a 90-percent layout with navigation keys such as Home, page down, Numpad to help gamers get better typing and input experience.

The up and down keys are put in one button, squished together to fit in the available space of the keyboard.

Yes, the laptop comes with backlighting keys but no RGB backlight. The L340 gaming laptop keyboard has monochrome blue lights and controlled using a simple FN+Spacebar button.

The chiclet based keyboard is not a great fit for a hardcore typist. It does not provide a great tactile experience, at some point; you would feel like a scratchy linear typing experience.

The trackpad as well could have improved, nearer to the left-hand side. The trackpad is smooth and large, with left and right tactile buttons, enough pressured to let you know what you just pressed.

Ports & Connectivity

The trend is now to put all ports and connectivity on one side of the laptop. Here, with L340 you will behold the ports on the left side. The ports are, Ethernet port, an HDMI port, two USB 3.1 port, Gen 1 Type-A connections, a USB Type-c, audio jack, and HDD activity lights.

On the right-hand side of the laptop, there is a Kensington lock. It would have been better if Lenovo could place more USB ports and USB card reader, better consumption of the wasted space.

Processor, RAM & Storage

The Lenovo has powered with its entry-level gaming laptop with Intel 9th generation core i5-9300h Hexa-core processor and GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card. This is an ideal combination of CPU+GPU to provide seamless, error-free gaming experience.

You can outshoot, outrun and outplay your competitor in gaming and can stand out in the crowd. At least you would not feel left behind because of low-powered devices. The laptop assists you in every form of gaming and upholds you every genre of video gaming.

The laptop also comes with an 8GB DDR4 RAM to assist you in multitasking. The size may look disappointing to the many, as it is not recommended RAM size for hard-core gaming. Still, it is manageable and helps you a lot without costing arms and legs.

The storage option is way better than much top-notch ranked entry-level gaming laptop. The beast comes incorporated with a bulky 512GB SSD storage; with extra slot for HDD or SSD another.

Furthermore, the size can be expanded using the extra slots integrated. The size can go up to 64GB RAM and storage up to 1TB SSD or HDD onboard. It is up to you what you can afford and what your needs demand from you.

Graphics Card

Now, let’s talk about the biggest deciding factor in gaming; GPU. I have mentioned it above as well, the Lenovo L340 gaming laptop acquires a GTX 1650 graphics card.

With the size of the graphics card, you can play eSports titles like CS: Go, easily at 1080P max settings, with frame rates above hundreds.

In PUBG, you can go around 50 frames per second at 1080P ultra gaming settings, lowering down the high settings to average can lead to more gain in frame rates around 63 per second.

The gaming laptop lets you roll hands-on top released high-ended games with average to high settings. We cannot mention the frame rates and settings for all the games.

A good option for the avid and casual gamer to go-with, undoubtedly.

Portability & Battery life

The biggest trade-off for a person looking for an ultralight gaming laptop, the laptop is not portable at all. With 4.8 pounds of weight, you will have to endure a bulky gaming laptop. It would not make a great notebook to carry around, despite its design and great looks.

The laptop is not exactly a thin machine, as per today’s standards. It is good to go device, makes a good entry-level gaming machine at a good price bracket. But, not a portable option what most of us lures to while traveling.

The IdeaPad L340 gaming laptop comes with a 3-Cell 45 Watt-hour battery that lasts around 8-9hours under the moderate load. Such as browsing streaming media, writing documents, and much more.

Guru’s Verdict

Lenovo has come up with a superior performance gaming laptop this time under an affordable price bracket. The gaming laptop can also be used as a business laptop, as the look is clean and it emanates a top-notch, 2-grand laptop aesthetics.

From hard-core gamers perspective, the product is not a good grab. If you are a hard-core gamer, love to explore the latest AAA titles, this would not render the best possible experience.

You are a student, a casual gamer, or need something for office work handling, yes the laptop can make a good option.

If you are looking for a gaming laptop that strives to maximize gaming performance rather fancy looking and stylish design, Dell G5 is your pick.

The laptop does not include extra bells and whistles, and like a good American muscular car, all of your money goes what’s under the chassis. To maximize gaming performance, Dell cuts the corners and offer an average looking machine.

If you could sacrifice some flair, you are going to enjoy superior gaming experience without spending arms and legs. Under the price of 1000 dollars, you are going to roll hands on a dedicated gaming machine powered with 9th generation processor, NVidia GeForce 1650 graphics card and much more gaming specification in the row.

The specs are great, at least better than others at the same price bracket, frame rates are above 60 fps at 1080p, and you get to hands-on a laptop that got the capability to run the latest games.

So, without any further delay, we are going to review Dell G5 15 gaming laptop and behold what the laptop brings under the hood and how the gaming experience is better than others along with other specs.

Design & Construction

The built quality of the Dell G5 is good. At least it would not look out of the place next to the three times expensive gaming laptop.

The laptop shares a quality material built, super-rigid, unlike many premium gaming laptops they are super rigid but feel like made of cheap plastic. The Dell G5 is well-built; the front lid shares a brushed metallic black finish with only blue emblem on lid.

The hinges are great, and one can open the lid with just one hand, a little screen wobbles though. The keyboard deck is solid than expected, with little to no flexes, the little flexes are because of thickness.

There would be no sliding or slipping around on your desk because of its rubber grippy bottom. The laptop is a little bulky with 6.1 pounds of total weight, cumbersome to carry around.

Still, as it shares a good range of specs with an impressive battery run-time, you would love to carry this weight to fulfill your gaming.

With the opening of a lid, you are exposed to a thinner bezel surrounding 15.6 inches screen. Just above the keyboard, you will see a glossy finish, a similar design to the more expensive G-7 series, with an ultra-fast fingerprint scanner and logo.

Speaking about the keyboard, the keys are a little smaller than, the travel speed is good, the keys are well spaced and feedback is tactile. It features a separate Numpad, to help you in gaming and getting the job swiftly done than usual.

Yes, the keyboard is backlit enabled, not RGB backlighting but Blue. A good addition though, helps you continue your typing job without delays.

At the bottom, you would not see anything except the ventilation grills; this is because other common sections on the bottom are moved to the front of the device such as speakers.

CPU, RAM & Storage

The Dell G5 gaming laptop comes in two different configurations, one with 8th generation quad-core Intel i5-8300H and the other is 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H.

The laptop we are reviewing shares the latest specification and it is marvelous to have hands-on something integrating cutting-edge processor. The 9th generation processor really helps you going through any amount of work without getting a slow, freezing or lackluster performance.

The RAM size is 16GB DDR4, enough for a casual gamer to continue gaming, yes an avid gamer would feel the need of having more memory onboard. That can also be nailed using the extended slots, enhances the memory up to 64GB and get the job done easier than before.

The storage section fits pro gamers’ needs. It shares dual storage option 1TB SATA for storing files and folder, while 256 GB SSD storage to take care of booting, reading/writing things. At the price under $1000 having such an impressive storage option really appeals to the users.

I am thinking, how Dell is capable of cramming in such impressive features in an affordable gaming laptop.

Display

The display of this gaming laptop is a crowd-pleaser. As long as the media streaming and high-definition videos are concerned, you will have a spell-bound experience.

The bezels are too large, it seems they are there to compose the screen and fill up space around the display. They are compensating the large form factor of the laptop.

The bezels could have been thinner, they seem redundant, and it seems, the designers just threw them away, just because they got free sturdy plastic.

The screen has a Full HD panel with 60Hz refresh rates; the quality of the display is amazing. Viewing angles are impressive; you will witness a shift at extreme angles.

The display straight off the bat is dull; the experience even worsened when you go out and try to watch something in sunlight. The display completely washed out, needless to say, that’s not something for binge-watch lovers.

But, you would not face any problem in gaming, but not an option for the content creators. Still, the display is not as bad as some of the affordable gaming laptops at the same price bracket, it is above average and you would not experience lagging behind especially playing games.

Graphics card

I have mentioned this above and going to mention that once again, the brand just cut the corners to put impressive gaming features. The laptop comes powered with an NVIDIA GTX 1650 with a 4GB dedicated memory. The latest graphics card helps gamers to achieve maximum results without lagging behind.

You achieve buttery smooth frame rates just because the latest 9th generation processor and powerful graphics card aids into gaming and lets you overshoot, overplay and overrun others.

Thermals

The laptop bottom and sides as well come with large vents. The vents help to dissipate heat and never let your machine melt out.

Yes, after hours of continuous gaming sessions, the laptop may witness thermal throttling; at that point, you should give some rest and take some too. But, that’s very rare, you will witness as much as a 10-percent drop in frame rates after hours of continuously using it for gaming.

Battery

The gaming laptop is powered with a 56 watt-hour battery. The size of the battery is above average that is the ideal battery size gamers dream of.

The battery lasts as long as 4-hours in gaming and about 5-6 hours for doing CAD or Engineering Work, editing videos, watching movies and listing to the songs. That’s a pretty good range, and you will really enjoy having this battery onboard.

Guru’s Verdict

As long as gaming is concerned, the laptop passes with flying colors. It integrates a powerful GPU and it stands out in the crowd when it comes to running high-ended games with as high as 60 Hz refresh rates.

The laptop lets you run AAA titles with medium to high gaming settings. Plus, the design of the laptop is something that calls and appeals gamers, it screams gaming. A large muscular body, with a backlit keyboard, helps you stand out in gaming.

Unfortunately, it does not go plain for display. The section really disappointed us, below the average display for binge-watchers and content creators, good to go for gamers.

The laptop is good to go for gamers, checks all the boxes right and falls right on games playing.